More Good Than Harm
by Kei the Average
Summary: Captain Haddock is much more than just the bumbling drunkard he once was; but every now and then he needs to be reminded of that. Nightmare elements. Haddotin. Takes place shortly after Rodier's Alph-Art.


_"Au secours! Au secours!"_

_ Haddock jumped out of the car, not even bothering to shut the door behind him as he sprinted towards the building. He remembered the note Tintin had sent with Snowy, now stuffed into his back pocket: "They mean to make me into a Cesar. Please hurry!" He wasn't quite sure what that meant, but judging by the cries for help coming from an open window on the top floor, it must be awful. He ran inside and hiked up the stairs, barely paying heed to the two detectives and little white dog trying to catch up to him from behind. Nothing else mattered to him now except for rescuing Tintin before it was too late._

_ Snowy caught up with the captain, running to a door and scratching on it with extra urgency. With a quick "Get back, Snowy!" Haddock charged at the door and kicked it down. Thompson and Thomson finally caught up to him, stopping a moment to catch their breath._

_ "Tintin! Where are you!?" Haddock called, but not so much as one red hair in sight. Instead before him stood…_

_ "Akass! Nash! Why I ought've known, you blistering bunch of bashi-bazouks!" the captain growled at them. "What have you done to Tintin? I know he's here!"_

_ Akass laughed, his voice sounding somehow familiar to the captain. "Ah, Captain Haddock. How nice to see you again, my fine friend!"_

_ Haddock and the Thompsons all pulled their guns out. "Enough of that idle chatter! Answer my question! Where is he?"_

_ "Well, I'll have you know that I caught your precious little Nosy Parkers snooping around here last night, trying to take a peek at Mr. Nash's newest paintings. So we thought, since he seems to be so keen on getting involved with the art industry, we'd personally introduce him to a more hands-on project in sculpting."_

_ The two men stepped back by something tall covered up with a white tarp. Ramo Nash grabbed at the tarp, facing the others with a nasty smile. "I give you, 'Reporter,' by Cesar." What the captain saw when that tarp was removed made his blood run cold. At first he thought it was merely a statue, but then he understood—_

_ "No…" Haddock's heart sank in his stomach. His throat felt dry and his knees felt they would give at any moment. His dearest friend in the world, the heroic and virtuous reporter, now stood before him as nothing but a marble statue. White arms seemed to be reaching out for him, the boy's young features forever etched into an expression of horror. "N-no…no that…that's not possible…!" the captain stuttered. "T…Tintin would never…" He dropped to his knees._

_ "Y'know what I think is the most sad, Mr. Nash?" Haddock heard Akass say in an amused tone of voice._

_ "What is that?"_

_ Akass seemed to be say it loud enough, to make sure the captain could hear it. "I bet poor little Tintin was thinking all this time that his dear old Captain Haddock was going to come and save him in time!"_

_ "Ah, yes!" Nash agreed, "Some knight in shining armor he turned out to be. I bet the poor child was absolutely heartbroken when he realized you weren't coming for him, Captain! How pathetic! I bet he had put so much faith in you too."_

_ Haddock felt a panicked anger swell inside of him. "D-don't say that…!" he shouted, but his voice was shaky and betrayed his fear. "You troglodytes, I—"_

_ "We're doing him a service by putting him out of his misery," one of them said. Their voices seemed to blend together and change. Haddock knew they were far away from him and yet it sounded like they were yelling into his ears. "After all, this isn't the first time his so-called friend has let him down."_

_ "He's got a penchant for putting people in danger and flunking out when they need him most, doesn't he?"_

_ "Shut up! I don't want to hear it!" the captain shouted, covering his ringing ears with his hands. He squeezed his eyes shut, childishly hoping that they'd all just go away._

_ "Captain…"_

_ Haddock raised his head and opened his eyes. He was no longer in a warehouse in Ischia. He was in his living room at Marlinspike. "How did I…?" he began to ask himself._

_ "Captain…"_

_ There it was again. That voice._

_ His voice._

_ "Tintin…?" the captain turned his head behind him. There stood Tintin in the doorway, completely unharmed._

_ "Tintin…"_

_ "Captain…" he repeated, holding out his arms and smiling._

_ Haddock stood up, running to him. "Tintin!" Reaching out he pulled his beloved into a tight embrace. "Oh thank the gods, I thought you were…"_

_ He heard the sound of something cracking._

_ Haddock pulled away, gripping Tintin's shoulders. They felt so stiff under his fingers. "Tintin, wh—" he began to ask before cracks began to appear in the boy's arms._

_ "No…"_

_ Cracks began to form down Tintin's arms and torso, and several cut across his now expressionless face. The color drained completely from his skin—and from the rest of him as well._

_ "No, no, thundering typhoons, no…!" Haddock tried to grab Tintin's hands, but he could feel his white fingers cracking and snapping off of them._

_ "C…ap…tain…" the word came out rough and strained from Tintin's marble lips before he crumbled away right in front of him._

_._

_._

_._

"Captain…Captain! Great snakes, Archibald, wake up!"

Captain Haddock's eyes blinked wide open. His heart was beating a mile a minute and he could feel beads of sweat all throughout his body. He also felt a pair of hands lightly shaking him. Tintin was leaning over him, his expression a mix of confusion and concern. He looked around and realized they were both in bed, and it was nighttime.

_It was all just a nightmare,_ he realized, sitting up. "Tintin, I—" he reached out for his partner's hands, hesitating when he remembered the events of his dream and pulled them back to rest on his lap. He could still hear those voices, the images of Tintin falling apart in front of him stayed imprinted in his mind.

"Whatever's the matter, _mon cher?"_ Tintin instead was the one to pull the captain's hands out of his lap, gently holding them. The boy's touch was comforting. "My god, you're shaking! That must have been some nightmare you were having; you were practically screaming in your sleep!"

Haddock nodded. "Y-yeah, I guess so," he answered, his voice distant.

"Y'know, if you tell me what happened, maybe it'll help…"

The older man sighed. "My nightmare was about…it was about you. It was back when we were in Ischia, and that lily-livered Ak—when Rastapopulous had captured you and was going to turn you into a 'Cesar.'" Tintin nodded slowly, recalling. "But it wasn't like when we were actually there. You…I had come too late…"

"Oh…"

"They started yelling at me," Haddock continued, "about how much I've let you down…how often I've put you in danger. They were taunting me, and I couldn't do or say anything to defend myself."

"But Captain, you don't—" Tintin began.

"But then I heard your voice, and when I opened my eyes I was back home. I saw that you were okay, and I was so happy." The captain's voice began to crack, "B…but when I held you in my arms, your body started breaking, there were cracks all over you…Y-you had...turned back into a statue and crumbled to…crumbled right to dust right before me…And it was all my fault.

"And then I realized that what those two were saying earlier was true. I have hurt you in the past…I've put you and our friends in danger before—and don't try and tell me that I haven't!" Haddock put in before Tintin had a chance to object. He sighed. "I always go with you whenever you're on a case because I'm always thinking that even though I know you're strong enough to take care of yourself, I still don't want you to get hurt, and that I want to protect you…but in the end, I just end up hurting everyone around me more. Like some sort of tragic monster, I am."

Tintin decided that now was his turn to speak. "Now listen here," he began, freshly determined, "It's true, you have put us in a couple of pinches before, I won't deny that—especially that time on the moon rocket where we were almost pulled in by a meteor, I'll admit that that wasn't the smartest thing you've done.

"But in all fairness, every other time something like that has happened, it was out of your control, back when you were absolutely dependent on alcohol and hallucinating off of the desert heat. I've seen you at your best and worst, and I know that, had you been in your right mind, you wouldn't have done any of those things. You may look tough, but I know you're not someone that just goes out and hurts people. And you never mean to when you do."

The captain looked like he was about to say something to deny it, but Tintin stopped him.

"Please, Archibald, hear me out." He squeezed the rougher hands resting inside of his. "When I had been captured back then, and nobody had come for me, I found myself in on a tipping point between fear and despair. For a second as I was sinking into that polyester it finally dawned on me that I was going to die alone, and that thought was enough to make me want to give up hope and accept that as my fate. But then I heard you and Snowy come to my rescue, and I was so relieved—there was someone who cared enough to run out there alone into the unknown for me, and it gave me hope; even if I had died that day, I would have died knowing that I had friends that truly cared about me.

"And that's not even the first time you've done that—in Tibet when we were dangling off of a cliff and you were going to cut the rope holding us together; in Wadesdah, when you came out of nowhere when I was cornered; that time when we were looking for Red Rackham's treasure and my submarine got stuck…don't you remember them? It seemed as though whenever I was lonely and ran out of hope, you were always the first one to come running after me without thinking about the consequences. And even those times when you did mess up, they were never that bad…and I never doubted that you've always had good intentions. And you've certainly done a fine job of keeping me out of harm's way."

A tear rolled out of Haddock's eye. "D…do you really believe that?"

"I wouldn't be here right now to say all of this if it wasn't true, would I?" Tintin stifled a chuckle, leaning over to give the captain a kiss. "You really don't know just how much you mean to me, do you?" He asked after parting. "It's much, much more than you think." He raised a hand and wiped away at the congregation of tears gathering at the captain's eyes, and smiled brightly. "So no more of this 'monster' nonsense, okay? Even knights in shining armor have their days; but they pick up where they left off and keep marching forward to do what they can."

Tintin's motivational tirade managed to get Haddock to grin. Feeling his courage return, he held Tintin's hands in his. "Heh," he began, shaking his head. "Y'know, that's what I've always admired about you; it seems as though whenever I've got some sort of problem, you always know exactly what to do or say to fix it."

"See? I told you it would help," Tintin said, laughing again. Content with his handiwork, the boy slipped back comfortably into bed. "Good night, _mon cher,"_ he murmured.

Feeling more at ease, the captain slid back under the covers as well, scooting closer to Tintin. Smiling at the sight of the face that his lover made in his sleep, Haddock knew that whether he was in the middle of the Arabian Desert or in the middle of a nightmare, it didn't matter; his beloved friend would always be there with him smiling, shining. And if Tintin were to ever run into trouble and out of hope again, Captain Haddock, his bumbling knight, would be right behind to come to his rescue, come what may. With this, the captain drifted to sleep once more, no more nightmares to be found.


End file.
